Pretty Maids: Kingmaker

If there is one band out there that has paid their dues, it’s Pretty Maids. Hailing from Denmark, these rockers, who have been around since 1981, have just released their fourteenth studio album, Kingmaker, and again have put out a monster.

“When God Took a Day Off” starts the album with a mystic chant and then bombastic heavy guitar and drums. Lead singer Ronnie Atkins, who has fronted this band since the beginning, hasn’t lost a thing. Guitarist Ken Hammer, the only other original member, is as underrated as they come. He and Atkins still have a ‘thing’ going here after all these years and that’s evident enough in the next song and title track “Kingmaker.” You wanted crunchy, heavy, and melodic? You got it. This song sounds just like a Pretty Maids song should. It immediately took me back in time to something like off of Future World or Jump the Gun. Talk about a one-two punch for opening songs.

The album does have its power ballads too. “Last Beauty on Earth” is as great a slow rocker as they come. “Bull’s Eye,” my personal favorite, comes right after the ballad and will rock your face off. This heavy guitar song will flat out make you a fan of theirs if you never were one. “Civilized Monsters” is a song I cannot emphasize enough. It’s a powerful heavy track that just might make you get another copy for a friend of yours. Once again, Pretty Maids have put out another melodic, guitar riffing album for your liking. Look for it on Frontiers Records and hopefully, one day, these guys will return to the States to tour.